Optimise your LinkedIn profile

LinkedIn is the first touchpoint in most B2B buying journeys. Type your name into Google and your profile link usually outranks your website, press coverage and podcast appearances. Every post, comment and cold email nudges buyers toward that single page. If what they find feels like a dusty CV, they bounce. If it looks like a purpose-built landing page, they might leave their details or go to your website.

I've been a CXL-certified conversion specialist for more than a decade, and I'll show you how to use conversion optimisation principles to your LinkedIn profile. In this guide I show you, step by step, how I rebuild sales profiles so they generate leads or meetings from your profile.

Who this article is for

• Solopreneurs who win business through personal relationships.
• B2B founders who lead by example and need a profile that matches their offer.
• Marketing teams optimising the profiles for their sales teams, to generation more meetings from the profile views.

By the end of this article, you'll know how to get people to notice your profile, stay around, and leave their details or contact you. Ready to turn that stuffy CV into a lead-magnet? Let's get started!

A powerful framework in conversion work is the five-second rule: if a visitor cannot tell what you do and why it matters within five seconds, they will click away. Your LinkedIn profile deserves the same logic. In the paragraphs below I show you exactly how to tune the four elements visitors see first, and I finish with two practical tests: how to test your profile with the five-second rule with AI and how to a mini-customer research to get feedback on your profile from real humans.

Profile picture

Start with a sharp, clear 400 × 400-pixel head-and-shoulders shot and let your face fill roughly 80% of the circle, because visitors decide in seconds whether you look trustworthy. Remove the background entirely or replace it with a single brand colour so nothing steals focus from your expression.

Dress for the room you want to be in: scan the profiles of your ideal buyers or your manager’s manager and mirror their level of polish. Covid has relaxed formal dress codes, yet turning up under-dressed still hurts credibility, so when you are unsure, step up a notch.

Keep the image current. If you shave, grow a beard, go bald or switch glasses, upload a new photo the same week. Seeing a twenty-year-old portrait during a video call breaks trust faster than any copy mistake.

Think twice before adding the green “open to work” ring. If you sell premium services the label hints that you are between gigs and can lower your status. Of course it remains personal choice, but I would leave it off unless you genuinely need a role urgently.

Here's an example of a simple, professional profile picture.

Profile banner

Think of the banner as the hero image at the top of a home page. One static banner is more than enough when you apply tight design rules. Pick a background colour that contrasts with your profile-picture backdrop so the two elements do not blend together. Use oversized, high-contrast text that can be read at a glance, and keep copy to a single promise. Anchor important words at the centre or right side so they stay visible when the profile photo overlays the left edge.

Banner dimensions are 1584 × 396 pixels, yet LinkedIn crops differently on mobile and desktop. After exporting your design, upload it and check both views (mobile and desktop).

Below is a great example of a branded picture. Rajhen is an advertising specialist and he runs for charity. He is very passionate about it and often shares his charity work on LinkedIn. The running outfit fits his brand perfectly and makes the image memorable.

Profile banner types

Below are three proven slide ideas. Use them in the order that matches your funnel.

Client logos banner‍

Show three to five recognisable brand marks against a plain backdrop. The social proof calms sceptical buyers and takes zero reading effort.

What we do banner

‍Highlight one standout metric, such as “€45 million revenue generated for B2B SaaS teams.” Large numerals command attention and communicate value faster than paragraphs of text.

Call-to-action banner

‍The third option is to simply show the main action you want profile visitors to take. But write it from their benefit, not your own. For example: “Book a free 15-minute pipeline audit,” and add a simple arrow pointing to your custom link strip. The graphic guides the eye to the next click and ties the banner into your lead flow.

‍

Profile banner slider with LinkedIn premium

LinkedIn Premium unlocks up to five rotating banners. If you publish regularly or run multiple offers, e.g. a newsletter, a free mini-course, or book a call, this carousel pays off fast. The extra slides let you speak to different pain points without overloading one image, and visitors cycle through them while scanning your profile.

Headline

Be clear, not clever

‍Your headline follows you everywhere on LinkedIn, so it must read like plain English. Skip buzzwords such as “growth hacker” or “marketing ninja”. Mir Hossen shows how simplicity sells: “Helping SaaS companies build inbound SEO funnels, junior SEO.” The promise is specific, the wording is easy and any SaaS founder knows why to click.

Write for the audience, not for yourself

‍Picture the buyer persona you outlined in your content strategy and speak to their goal. Clémence does this perfectly: “Homepage messaging for B2Bs.” Six words, all about the reader’s need for clear copy that converts.

‍Add a reason to visit your profile

‍A strong headline gives people a next step, whether that is following you, booking a call or downloading a guide. Zain nails the formula: “Follow me to learn how you can leverage AI to boost your productivity and accelerate your career. Scaled products to 8 million users and built the world's biggest AI newsletter with 1 million plus readers.” The line opens with a follow prompt, explains the value and backs it up with proof.

Use AI to write your headline

Copy the text below into ChatGPT (or any AI tool) and replace the placeholders with your own details. The AI will return one headline that meets LinkedIn’s 220-character limit.

Write a LinkedIn headline under 220 characters.

Keyword to lead with: [KEYWORD]  
Primary audience: [AUDIENCE]  
Call to action: [ACTION]

The headline must:
• include the the keyword,
• spell out the main benefit for the audience in plain English,
• end with the call to action,
• avoid jargon, fluff and emojis,
• use numerals for any figures.

Return just the headline, nothing else.

Five-second test

You have polished the picture, banner, headline and links, so now you need proof that the work lands in real time. At the start of this guide we called out the five-second rule: a visitor must understand what you do, see a clear result and spot a next step inside five seconds or they will leave. With your new above-the-fold content in place, run the rule in two simple ways.

Use AI for instant feedback

‍Grab a screenshot of the top of your profile, paste the image link into ChatGPT or Gemini and ask for a clarity review:
“Look at this LinkedIn profile screenshot. In one sentence tell me the problem this person solves, the main result they promise and what link you would click first. Then suggest one edit that would make each point clearer.”
If the answer is muddled, tighten the headline or rewrite the banner text, upload the tweaks and test again. Swapping tools helps; if you drafted the copy with ChatGPT, let Gemini critique it and vice versa.

Ask real people in real time

‍Show the same screenshot to a colleague, a friend and, ideally, someone who fits your buyer persona. Give them exactly five seconds, hide the image and ask three questions: What problem do I solve? What result do I promise? What link would you click and why? Record the answers verbatim. If they miss the benefit or hesitate on the link, adjust copy or layout until all three testers hit the mark.

Iterate until both AI and humans fire back the right answers with zero hesitation. Once visitors stay on the page, you can focus on the next task: turning that attention into clicks, leads and booked meetings.

Once a visitor stays on your page, every element should guide them towards a clear next step. LinkedIn offers four spots that act as exit ramps into your own funnel. Use them all and your profile becomes a mini landing page that works round the clock.

Top-of-page link

LinkedIn lets you place a single external link directly beneath your headline. I point that link to my free course because anyone who enrols immediately experiences the full value of Solid Growth. If your funnel begins with a booking page or a dedicated landing page, use that instead. Whatever destination you choose, add an action-oriented label such as “Book a quick call” or “Get the playbook” so visitors know exactly why to click. A strong example comes from LeadInfo: their Partner Enablement Manager uses the slot to invite prospects to “Become a LeadInfo partner”, a perfect match for the intent of anyone viewing his profile.

Lead link inside the About preview

The first three lines of About sit above the fold, so add a short call to action and a clean, memorable URL right after your hook. Many visitors click before expanding the text, so you catch impulse interest. Use a branded redirect such as yourbrand.link/demo to track clicks and to edit destinations later without touching the profile. Repeat the same link near the end of the section for readers who scroll, then check monthly which placement pulls more traffic.

Services showcase

At the moment I have the Services showcase switched on, which lets visitors request a proposal directly inside LinkedIn, but I am still deciding whether it helps or hurts overall conversions. I am running a simple test to see if the extra tab increases search visibility or siphons clicks away from my primary calls to action. I will share the numbers once they are in. If you visit my profile later and the Services section has disappeared, you will know the experiment showed it was better left off.

Featured section (and why Premium may be worth it)

‍The Featured carousel lets you stack visual calls to action, e.g. lead magnet, proof piece, explainer video in one swipeable line. On a free account it sits below Activity, but LinkedIn Premium lets you drag it higher, almost flush with the banner. Before upgrading, check your monthly profile views and compare the lift you expect with the cost of running equivalent ads. If your CPC on paid search is €5 and Premium costs €49 a month, you need only ten extra qualified clicks to break even. In my case the boost was worth it, because Featured now shows a newsletter sign-up first, a case-study slide second and a short “Book a 15-minute audit” video third—three logical paths for three levels of buyer intent.

Tie all four touch points together with identical wording and colours so visitors feel guided, not pushed. Review click data every month in LinkedIn analytics and in your own UTM-tagged links. Replace underperforming assets, rotate fresh proof and keep testing until the profile books leads as reliably as any paid campaign.

Maja has a good, clear and simple featured section (I removed 3 sections in the print screen to highlight her profile + featured in 1 print screen)

Focussed example: only one call-to-action

Treat these four touch points as living assets rather than set-and-forget links. Check your analytics monthly, look for bottlenecks, and swap any underperforming offer for a new test. When each element answers a single question “What should I click next?”, your profile turns steady profile views into a steady flow of demo requests, newsletter sign-ups and booked calls.

Think of LinkedIn as a search engine

People do not only scroll the feed, they type problems and job titles into the search bar. Your profile is also indexed by Google, which means a well-optimised page can pull traffic from outside the platform. Treat every editable field as metadata that helps the algorithm match you to the right visitor.

Custom profile URL

A custom slug is the first signal. Swap the random numbers for a short phrase that blends one keyword (and your name if it's already taken), for example linkedin.com/in/janedoe-funnel-expert. Many high-value terms are taken, yet even a partial match lifts visibility and looks tidy when shared.

Skills, endorsements and recommendations

LinkedIn weighs endorsements much like Google values backlinks. The more often credible people endorse you for a specific skill, the higher you surface for that keyword. After each project send a quick note:

“Thanks for working together. Would you endorse my demand generation skill? Happy to return the favour.”

Recommendations add even more weight because they include free-text context. Aim for a short, keyword-rich paragraph from each happy client. Quality beats quantity, so focus on peers and senior leaders with active profiles.

About section: use the full allowance

You have 2 600 characters, so use them. Keep the first three lines punchy for humans, then expand with a narrative that naturally repeats your primary keyword and two or three close variants. Think of it as writing a homepage: hook, proof, story, offer. Search crawlers will parse the extra detail while real readers still get value up top.

Job titles and experience descriptions

Every role has its own headline and description field. Rewrite old entries with the same care you give the current one. If you once held a marketing manager post, label it “Marketing manager — B2B demand generation” and explain the projects in language a buyer might search for. Spread synonyms across different roles to avoid repetition while still covering related phrases.

Keep it natural, skip the stuffing

LinkedIn’s algorithm, like Google’s, rewards relevance over repetition. Dropping your keyword ten times in a paragraph will hurt clarity and do nothing for ranking. Instead, decide on one primary term, collect three close synonyms and sprinkle them only where they fit the sentence. Read everything aloud: if it sounds robotic, rewrite.

Action step

Pick the one keyword you want to own, audit every field for opportunities to weave it in naturally and request three fresh endorsements this week. Small edits compound; over time you will see your profile climb both LinkedIn and Google results.

You have polished every inch of your profile, so the next step is to put it in front of more eyes. Profile views are your early feedback loop. More visits mean more data on whether the headline works, which links attract clicks and which messages resonate. The best part: you do not need to publish daily to make this happen. The three tactics below require little more than focused curiosity and a few minutes each day.

Visit other profiles

Opening someone’s profile triggers a “viewed your profile” notification that often sparks a return visit. Set a ten-minute timer, search for buyers who match your persona, then skim their About section, Featured items and recent posts. A percentage will click back, land on your headline and start the journey you have mapped out.

Leave thoughtful comments

Comments compound visibility more than any other free action. Forget one-line replies such as “Great insight.” Aim for depth: ask a question you genuinely want answered, highlight a specific detail that caught your eye or add an extra angle from your own experience. Quality trumps quantity here. Helpful, sincere comments turn up in other readers’ feeds and prompt profile clicks without a single cold message.

Personalised connection outreach

Once your name has appeared in notifications and comments, send a connection request. Keep it personal. Reference a recent post, podcast or mutual contact to prove you paid attention. My rules of thumb, adapted from the approach in this Zapier article:

• Regular creators: follow first, engage for a week, then connect with a note that names a specific post you enjoyed.
• Non-creators: research their work elsewhere and write a highly tailored note that includes a question, a compliment or a quick win.
• Mutual connections: mention the shared network to build instant rapport.

Never blast generic invites. Intentional, well-researched outreach builds real relationships and keeps your profile welcome in every inbox.

Why manual beats automation early on

Bots can spray invitations faster, yet the relationships are shallow and the risk of spam reports is high. Manual outreach teaches you which questions draw a reply, which compliments sound genuine and which pain points trigger a call. After your first hundred or two hundred manual connections you will know the patterns well enough to automate tiny pieces without losing the human touch.

Begin with profile visits, layer in value-packed comments and finish with personalised requests. This loop keeps a steady stream of new eyes on your profile, powering the lead-generation engine you built earlier.

You have turned a static résumé into a living landing page. The five-second test ensures strangers know what you do before their thumb moves, the lead-generation touch points turn that interest into clicks, and the search-friendly copy keeps fresh eyes flowing in. Small, regular tweaks will keep your profile compounding trust and leads long after today’s edit session. In the next chapter, I'll show you how to post on LinkedIn.